Jobless Rate Continues To Drop In Northwoods

Preliminary July 2017 rates decreased or remained the same in all 72 counties when compared to a year ago. In the Northwoods, Iron county has the state's second highest rate at 5.5 percent, down more than one point from a year ago.

State Labor Economist Mitchell Rupp in Wausau gives us the Northwoods numbers...

"....Forest(county) is at 5.1...Langlade is at 4.4...Lincoln is at 3.7....Oneida is at 3.1....and Vilas is at 3.5...."

Price county is at 3.6 Forest county's rate is low, but still the third highest in the state.

All those figures are about one point below one year ago. The latest available for the first quarter of 2017 show a gain of 27,000 private-sector jobs in Wisconsin in the 12-month period ending in March

. The statewide rate averaged over all the counties is 3.2 percent, with Dane county having the lowest rate at 2.5 percent.